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A question I received: I have a question. The movie Nights of Kabbalah showed how Kabbalists could predict the future. But this was in reference to the Kabbalists of the past. You also mentioned that now there are no teachers equal to Baal HaSulam.

However, I’ve heard someone say that there are people living today who have special powers and can change the physical world around them. For example, they can turn stones into sand, and they can be in several places at the same time. But these magic tricks are not their objective; their goal is to know the Creator.

They are able to do these things completely naturally, without any spells, esoteric practices or mysticism. So, with all due respect, I would like to know: how is it possible that Kabbalah is the only truth? How can it be that only Kabbalists know the whole truth?

My Answer: There are no miracles in this world. See Baal HaSulam’s article, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” where he explains that Kabbalah is a science, which means that it is based on data that was attained and revealed through the method of experiment. You should also read “The Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” where it talks about the limits of attainment – that one can only attain matter and its form, but not the abstract form and the essence.

In the News (from The Age): “G8 agree to fight protectionism” The world’s biggest economies have agreed to fight protectionism and limit global warming as the major emerging powers confront the Group of Eight rich nations at their Italian summit.

My Comment: But that would be like having wolves watching over sheep. How is this even possible without changing man’s egoistic nature? Clearly, this change cannot happen overnight, because it can only take place if a person chooses and desires it. This is why the change must start with upbringing and education.

A question I received: If the world does not unite and nature will destroy large populations of us until we go down to a small population, what will force us to unite? Wouldn’t this be the same as Ancient Babylon (small population and a large empty planet), and everyone will have more space to move around without having to interconnect?

My Answer: No, it won’t. The suffering of the population’s restriction, and other miseries that were described by the prophets four and a half thousand years ago, will force people to attain the Goal of creation: the level of the Creator.

What do we know about ourselves?We know that we are in a reality called “this world,” and that we are born into it, generation after generation. And this world continuously advances because man develops; that is, he becomes smarter, more egoistic, and desires more things.

This is how we move forward, every person throughout the course of his life and one generation after another. Contrary to all other parts of Nature (the still, vegetative and animate levels), we humans constantly develop. That is to say, our desire develops and compels us to improve our environment and our life, including education, culture, science, technology, and everything else.

But one person alone can never secure the life that he desires, and this is the reason we have to live in a society, so we can unite and profit off of each other. And we can see that over the course of history, the arrangement and structure of society have changed many times.

Thus, our entire life revolves around deciding, “how much will we give in order to receive as much as we want?” Or in other words: How can we establish a relationship between the receiver and the giver (where each of us is the former and the latter) so that everyone will be satisfied?